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Srinagar:The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur, Christof Heyns, along with his team members, address a press conference in Kashmir on Monday (March 26) to examine situation of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Photo Credit Demotix FAISAL KHAN

LAHORE/NEW DELHI – A subtle shift may be occurring in one of the world’s longest-standing and most intractable conflicts – the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Increasingly, it seems, Pakistanis are questioning what the
Kashmir dispute has done to their own state and society

THE VOICE of Syed Ali Shah Geelani has become tremulous over the years but it remains defiant. “Whether Pakistan supports our cause or not, I have unshakeable faith in Allah, who will help Kashmiris. But the only condition is that we must correct ourselves,” says the Hurriyat (G) supremo at his daughter’s residence in New Delhi. Read more…

Centre could approach the separatists after the report by interlocutors fails to find any takers

Iftikhar Gilani
New Delhi

Syed Ali Shah Geelani

The Centre could possibly warm up to separatists again to maintain peace in Jammu & Kashmir after the report of interlocutors didn’t find any takers even before going public. Exactly a year after disregarding the separatists’ overtures, the Union government is now dusting out pre-conditions and formula set by them.

Moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s 10-point prerequisite and his hardline colleague Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s five-point formula, proposed last year at the height of street protests, was rebuffed by officials and the political brass here, who instead appointed a three-member panel comprising noted journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academic Radhka Kumar and bureaucrat MM Ansari. A ‘quite dialogue’ between the moderate faction of Hurriyat and Home Minister P Chidambaram ended abruptly in December 2009 after a deadly assault on a key leader Fazl Haque Qureshi.

Failing to find the separatists on the same note, the Centre could wink first. There is possibility of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself taking charge of Kashmir as prior to 2008, when separatists were invited for talks. It was quite evident by the way the Home Ministry went into a fire-fighting exercise after chief interlocutor Padgaonkar said that the separatists had missed the bus by refusing to meet the panel.

A Home Ministry official dismissed the belief that the there was no hope for dialogue after the interlocutors were rebuffed by the separatists. There was still hope for dialogue, the official said implying that the separatists could be approached. “The report is not the end of the day,” he said. Referring to separatists, the official said, “We have to acknowledge the reality; they are there.” Describing the report of interlocutors as an important milestone in the peace process, the official said, “It is an ongoing process and not an end.”

Ahead of the summer protests that claimed more than 100 lives, Farooq had kicked off the dialogue by presenting a 10-point charter.
1. Immediate end of military, para-military and militant action.
2. Withdrawal of the army from towns and villages, and dismantling bunkers, watch towers and barricades.
3. Release of political prisoners.
4. End of human rights violations.
5. Annulling repressive laws.
6. Restoring the rights of peaceful association, assembly and demonstration.
7. Allowing the Kashmiri leadership, which favours a negotiated resolution, to travel abroad.
8. Issuing visas to the Kashmiri diaspora to visit the state.
9. Creating necessary conditions for an intra-Kashmiri dialogue embracing both sides of the ceasefire line.
10. Allowing a transitional phase before the decisive elements of the peace package are put into effect. Read more…